Miss Cahill said she was “shocked and upset” after the attack which happened when Gough arrived more than an hour late at home.

She told the court how she had become “really worried” after Gough was more than an hour late dropping off their son and had failed to return some of her calls when she tried to ask where he was.

Miss Cahill chose to give evidence behind a blue curtain so she did not have to come face-to-face with her ex-boyfriend who denied assaulting her.

The court was told that when he arrived in the rain at 9.15pm she went to the car and tried to reach in to get her son Gabriel out, but she claimed he grabbed and pushed her against the van.

Recounting her ordeal, she said: “I went out to collect my son. It was raining so I went out to the van. I expected Ian to get out but he was on his phone as if he was texting.

“I was standing there for a few seconds. There were no obvious signs he was going to get out. It looked as if he was mocking me because I was standing out in the rain.

“I opened the passenger door and Ian just stormed around the front of the van.

“I was a little bit taken aback but I wanted to get Gabriel out of his car seat.”

Miss Cahill said that as she reached in to get her son Gough grabbed her shoulder and pushed her.

She said: “He had the front of my shoulder and he just flung me back.”

She said Gough told her “get away” as he attacked her.“I staggered back”, she added. “I said ‘No Ian, it’s fine I can get him. And then he got me by the shoulder and flung me and I went into the side of the door.”

She said Gough took Gabriel out and silently handed him to Miss Cahill before driving off.

The model said she fled back to her house in tears where her fiance,former Another Level star Dane Bowers, was waiting for her.

The court heard Mr Bowers sent an angry text to Gough which read: “Did you just lay your f****** hands on Sophie?”

The singer told how he had seen the attack from the window of their home.

He said: “He grabbed Sophie and moved her away from the car. It was forceful enough that I wondered...I couldn’t hear what was said.

“But in my eyes he had no reason or permission to grab her and move her out of the way.”

Just a few days before the attack Miss Cahill had been in a car accident and suffered whiplash which required hospital treatment.

She told magistrates that Gough’s attack made her injuries “worse”.

Mark Haslam, defending, insisted Gough did not attack Miss Cahill but had told her not to open the passenger door because he feared it could trigger her back injury.

He also accused the model of being “abusive and swearing at” Gough.

But Miss Cahill denied this saying: “Absolutely not. There is absolutely no way I can imagine Ian offering any kind of help to me.”

Gough insisted he physically could not attack Miss Cahill because he had a calf injury and accused the model of swearing at him and attacking his car.

He said: “Sophie was still at the window and punched the window and was shouting and swearing profusely at me and punching the wing mirror on the side of the van which caved in.”

He added: “The last thing I could see as I was driving off was her holding the baby in her left arm with her finger stuck up at me still swearing.”

Gough, who currently plays for Newport Dragons, was found guilty of assault by beating at the house in the private street in South Croydon, London.

Wearing a black suit and light blue open collar shirt, the rugby star, who lives in Swansea, shook his head as the verdict was delivered.

Chairman of the bench Terry Carpenter ordered a probation report and adjourned sentencing until August 26.

He said the magistrates had found the evidence of Miss Cahill “convincing” and backed up by Mr Bowers.

Speaking outside court, Malcolm Gough, the rugby star’s father, said they were “strongly disappointed with what the magistrates have just come out with.”

He added: “We totally disagree with it and are taking it further, as far as we can go. It’s a travesty of justice.”

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